Positive Psychology at Work:

2

Positive Workplaces

In 2009 I ran a series of large group events at a manufacturing organization. The organization was about to introduce a new Enterprise Resource Planning IT system and needed to help everyone become aware of the changes in behaviour needed to get the best of the new system, particularly the need to enter very accurate data. The investment in this new IT was symbolic of a wider shift in the culture of the organization. One of the events we ran was a simulation of both the ‘real’ movements of goods through the manufacturing process and the ‘virtual record’ of these movements. Each part of the process – goods inwards, production, sales, pick, customer service, pack, assembly, planning and the client – had a stand in a large circle. Each stand was the equivalent of a computer terminal. They also had the kit needed to run the simulation: cardboard boxes, labels and a few specific bits of product. We had some people in another room who were the central processing unit (CPU): they were wholly dependent in their decision-making and planning on the data that came to them on cards about what was going on. In other words, they couldn't see what was physically happening. In this way we assembled all the disparate parts of the production process, normally spread out over a 42-acre site, in one, very long room. Now they were in a much better position to see the normally hidden patterns of interdependence.

We ran three rounds to simulate a three-month time period. Each round ...